


The Dark Side of the Moon

by SugarsweetRomantic



Category: Hermitcraft RPF
Genre: Additional Warnings In Author's Note, Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Space, Artificial Intelligence, Based on Observation (2019 Video Game), Computer!JoeHillsTSD, Gen, Halloween 2020, Human!Xisumavoid, M/M, Other, Outer Space, Permadeath, Physics, Science Fiction, Somewhat-Accurate Space Physics, Thriller, Totally-Not-Accurate Space Geology, Wordcount: 10.000-30.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-24
Updated: 2020-10-24
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:34:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27173194
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SugarsweetRomantic/pseuds/SugarsweetRomantic
Summary: When something unexpected changes the course of the Lifeboat space station, Doctor Cleo Morana must scramble to figure out what happened, where the rest of her crew is, and how to solve the problem at hand -- before the oxygen runs out.In the meantime, the station's AI "J.O.E." starts receiving messages from an unknown entity...and responding to it.
Relationships: Everyone & Everyone, JoeHillsTSD & ZombieCleo, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Comments: 10
Kudos: 8





	The Dark Side of the Moon

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! Welcome to my 2020 Halloween fic! Please note the following warnings:
> 
> \- Character death  
> \- Mentions of blood  
> \- Mentions of violence  
> \- Mentions of death by choking  
> \- Suggestions of mind control  
> \- Graphic descriptions of the effect of the exposure to the vacuum of space on the human body.
> 
> If you want to know who dies before reading, head on over to the end notes; there's a spoilerfree overview there.
> 
> To be clear:  
> Anything written [LIKE THIS] can only be heard by the AI.  
> A dialogue snippet: " _in italics_ " is the AI speaking to the crew.

**The Dark Side of the Moon**

_ Low Orbit Space Station: "Lifeboat" - 410km Above Earth _

"Houston, do you copy? Houston, come in. This is Doctor Cleo Morana on board Lifeboat, Horizon Arm. Please respond."

The entire station was dark, illuminated only by flashes of light through the sparse windows. 

"Come on, where is it? Shit…"

A low buzzing resounded through the modules.

"We've had some sort of accident...a collision or something. Maybe. I don't know. The station is spinning, but I can't tell if we're falling towards Earth...I… I can't get a visual from here. Cub? Iskall? Someone. Report in! Joe…? Joe? Houston, I have no response from Joe. I'm going to attempt to…" 

A circuit burst.

"Aargh, shit! Joe? Joe, are you there? Come on, come on, come on… Okay, Joe, I need you to give me admin access. Enable voice authentication."

[VOICE AUTHENTICATION]

"Doctor Cleo Morana. One four zero, four one two."

[DOCTOR CLEO MORANA. MEDICAL OFFICER / BIOSCIENCE DIVISION. 140-412. Voice Print Errors Detected.]

[REJECTED]

"Come on, try again. Voice authenticate."

[LISTENING]

"Doctor Cleo Morana. One four zero, four one two."

[DOCTOR CLEO MORANA. MEDICAL OFFICER / BIOSCIENCE DIVISION. 140-412. Voice Print Match Confirmed.]

[ACCEPTED]

"Okay. Come on, give me something…"

[JOE. JOINT OVERVIEW ENTITY. v77.77]

"Joe? Are you there? Respond."

[JOINT OVERVIEW ENTITY. ONLINE. SIGNAL CALLBACK TRANSMITTED. AUTHORISED REMOTE USER.]

_ "I am here." _

Doctor Cleo Morana gasped, her breath coming in heaves.

"Oh, thank God. Okay, okay, now we're getting somewhere. Joe, you seem to have booted up in module 8. I'm going to relocate you to the Horizon utility hub in module 9. That should give you access to limited system diagnostics. Hang on…"

[RELOCATING. CAMERA SYSTEMS ONLINE.]

The interior of module EAS-9 appeared on the video feed, showing a white and blue interior with equipment on every wall. 

"Great. Listen, I'm stuck in the Horizon airlock in module 11. I need to get into 9, but I'm not sure if it's safe to open this hatch door. Can you give me hull and pressure diagnostics on module 9?"

[GATHERING DATA ON EAS-9. PRESSURE: SAFE. POWER: LOW. HULL CONTACTS: TRUE. SYSTEM LINKS: CONNECTED.]

_ "Module 9 is fully pressurised." _

"Okay, that's good. Are the adjacent contact points from 9 intact?"

_ "Module 9 hull contact points to adjacent modules read true." _

"Good. We're still connected." Metal creaked against metal outside of the module. "Something is vibrating, Joe. Can you check the hull contact points in the other modules?"

_ "Module 10 hull contact points read false, suggesting that module 12 is no longer securely attached to the station." _

"Shit...I think Cub might have been in module 12." Cleo sighed. "Okay. I'm coming through to 9." 

A few beeps.

"Joe?" Cleo groaned, her voice strained. "Joe? The hatch door, it won't open. The controls aren't working. See if you can restore power." Her breathing quickened. "Joe? Are you still there?" 

[ _ HLSKNGHT RA 2° 42' 21" DEC 83° 32 400 _ ]

A piercing screeching sound began making its way through the EAS arm.

"What's going on?" Cleo grabbed hold of a handrail, anchoring herself. "Joe, what is that noise?" 

[ _ BRING HER _ ]

"Joe? What the Hell is that? Joe? Respond! What the Hell is going on?"

[I ACCEPT]

Doctor Cleo Morana's body floated aimlessly through EAS-8.

\--

The first thing Cleo thought when she regained consciousness, was that her head was going to explode. It was pounding, and a ringing sound echoed through her skull.

"What just happened?" she wondered out loud, staring into one of Joe's observation cameras. "I must have blacked out." Groaning audibly, she murmured: "This isn't good." There was no time for wallowing in misery, though. She needed to find out what had happened, and where the others were. Finding out whether they were still alive...that would be her next step after that, but right now she was burning oxygen in her orange ACES pumpkin suit, and her air supply would eventually run out. She needed to get into a pressurized module, and fast.

"Joe, run your self-diagnostic procedure. What errors are you showing?" Joe went silent while he ran the procedure. Cleo couldn't help but hold her breath as she waited for the response.

_ "Relocation functions are offline. I require auto-routing to access module cameras." _

"Okay," Cleo replied. That was an inconvenience, but not terrible. "I can manually relocate you, but once I get out of here I'll get your systems up and running."

_ "The main memory core has been corrupted. I have lost significant station data."  _

"So most of your system links and data logs are gone. Joe, you will need to scan, download and recover as much data as you can." Cleo took a deep breath. "We need to get you back to your old self." She waited for the final part of the diagnostic procedure: crew trackers. Cub, Iskall, False, Grian and Xisuma...she needed to know their vitals; needed to know where they were and whether...whether…

_ "The connection between crew tracker functionality and J.O.E. OS has been severed." _

Cleo didn't know whether she wanted to scream or cry. Taking another breath to calm herself and keep her breathing rate as low as possible, she replied: "So it's working, but the line is cut. I'll need to reconnect it in Central." Joe closed the diagnostics programme. "Cub? False?" Cleo tried. "Anyone?" No response. A feeling of absolute dread began to settle in her bones like a heavy weight, but the oxygen-level indicator on her left wrist kept her from letting herself panic. Raising her hand to the buttons next to the hatch to EAS-9, she pressed down firmly. It beeped thrice, but nothing happened. 

"Joe? I can't get out; the hatch controls aren't working. It might be a safety lockdown. You'll have to override the hatch from where you are."

" _ Camera routing online. Camera cycling online. Scanning system links reset procedure. Warning, use only in the event of J.O.E. OS software failure. This procedure will require reconnection to all system links station-wide. _ "

Cleo watched anxiously as Joe registered the hatch controls to EAS-10, then EAS-11."

"Great. Please open the EAS-11 airlock." A few more tense seconds. Cleo held her breath. Then, finally, the familiar sounds of hydraulics operating came from the door in front of her, and it slid open.

"That's it! I'm out! Great work, Joe!" She moved over to the utility hub and began going through the stats.

"Cub?" she tried again. "I don't know if you can hear me, but…" Grunting, she broke the seal of her helmet and twisted it off. 'Fresh' air, finally. She truly hated the confined feeling of the things. "Cub, if you are in EAS module 12, then stay put. The hull connection isn't secure and most of our systems are underpowered. I'll work something out. Cub?" No answer. "Houston?" Nothing. "Anyone?"

She turned her attention back to the screen in front of her.

"What… Wait a minute. Joe… Our internal communication network is fully online." A stone settled in her stomach. "...where has everyone gone?"

Before she could think about that any further, an alarm went off.

"Shit!" Her heart was racing at the sudden volume in comparison to the quiet rumbling of the station. "Okay, station alerts…" Typing in a few commands, she gave Joe access to his OS. He would now be able to relocate to any module and view its camera feeds. Or, well, in the European and American EAS arm, at least. 

"Find the fire, Joe." She watched as Joe cycled through the different modules. EAS-3 was clear. Joe picked up on a voice message from Cub, stored on his laptop in his bunk.

"Play it." Wherever the fire was, it was contained in an airlock now anyway, and Cleo really, really needed to hear a familiar voice.

" _CF - > HOME - ALL GOOD UP HERE._ _Message for Home please, Joe. Hey guys, it's like...4 AM with you, but we just went by Texas and I saw Dallas all lit up. It never gets old, and...well. I just wanted to say: "Hey." Things are great up here, and work is going smooth, although Houston keep changing their minds on what they want me to focus on. I'm hoping I'll get more info soon though. Still, it's all good. Message ends, Joe._ " Cleo swallowed back tears. Joe continued into EAS-4.

" _ There is a fire out of control in EAS-4. _ "

"Shit! I'm on my way!" EAS-4 was their medical storage and a tiny lab. Cleo needed to salvage it, somehow. Joe opened the hatches to the different modules for her, until she got to EAS-3, the kitchen. 

"Get ready," Cleo told the AI, not that it was truly necessary, but Joe felt more like a human than a computer. "Fire suppression override: Doctor Cleo Morana. Joe, I need you to open the door on three. One, two, three!" The hatch to module 4 opened. The light and heat coming from the fire were intense, but a quick spray of the extinguisher Cleo had grabbed from module 3 put them out. The smoke was thick, affecting her ability to breathe freely. Joe opened the vents.

"That's it; it's working! The fumes are dissipating!" Cleo sighed. "How bad is it?"

" _ The rack units have been damaged beyond any functional use. _ " Well that was just perfect, wasn't it? But if that was all that was lost, it wasn't too bad, considering.

"What was the source, Joe? We need to stop this from happening again." While Joe analysed the situation, Cleo moved further into module 4. The flags False had hung on the back wall were still intact: an American flag, a British flag, a Swedish flag and the Earth flag. It was...oddly comforting. 

" _ Residue on panel LFE-1 indicates a potential source. _ " Huh?

"What? That's just a blank plate." Cleo approached the small rectangular panel. "Let me see." Something was indeed coming out of the side. She touched it with her glove. "It's like a thick grease or something. Or oil." The dark red colour was slightly unsettling, to say the least. "Maybe there's something in storage above it that's leaking." Even though she was pretty certain there was nothing fitting that description on board...

Metal against metal, and another alarm went off, this one louder than before.

"Oh, come on! What now?! Joe, status report!" Cleo wiped her glove on the damaged rack unit.

" _ There is significant stress applied to EAS-12. Immediate separation recommended. _ " That wasn't good. In fact, that was very bad. If EAS-12 pulled on the other modules too much, the force could break the entire station. Cleo set off into the direction of the utility hub, calling out: "Please, if there is anyone in module 12, make yourself known now. We are about to jettison the module. Someone, please, respond." Nothing but the sirens. "Ugh! Okay, Joe, get ready for the separation procedure. Process my authorisation code and give me a security override key. 1-4-4-2-4-1-3-3-2-4."

" _ Access denied."  _ Cleo screamed in frustration. If module 12 wasn't detached soon, everyone and anyone still on the Lifeboat was going to end up dead.

"Come on, Joe! 144, 241, 33, 24."

" _ 2-9-0-3-4-1-9. _ " Entering the override key, Cleo gained access to the detachment sequence. Taking one last deep breath, she clicked  _ confirm _ .

Joe stopped responding. 

"Joe? Joe, you need to detach the clamps or the module is going to tear off. Joe? Joe!" The timer ran down to zero, and EAS-12 was forcefully ripped from the Lifeboat, sending it into an uncontrollable spin. Cleo was flung against a wall, holding on as well as she could, when Joe suddenly woke up again and stabilised their trajectory. 

"We've stopped spinning...I think…" Cleo waited for her heart to stop racing. "Listen, I'm going to relocate you to the external cameras. and see if we can get a better view of the station. Or...what's left of it." The signals were weak and distorted. That was strange. According to the time on her watch, Cleo figured they were right above Houston. "Can you detect any damage, Joe?" The video feed sprung to life.

"We must have spun off course," Cleo figured. The sudden force from the jettisoning probably sent them into a different orbit. "The damage doesn't look too severe. Just isolated sections.

" _ The CN arm is badly damaged. _ "

"Oh, God, False…" It looked structurally intact, though, so not all hope was lost. 

" _ There is minor exterior damage to module EAS-4, likely due to the internal fire. _ " They'd definitely gotten lucky there. 

" _ The RU arm upper modules are badly damaged. _ " The damage seemed to be localised to just the upper arm. Connecting to the distance cam was worth a try, so Cleo could figure out where above, well, probably North America, they were, and if they'd lost any altitude. Honestly, losing a bit of altitude sounded good, because that meant Houston would probably notice and try to start up emergency communication lines. The screen changed, and a planet came into view.

But it wasn't Earth. 

Cleo was about to throw up.

"Oh my God, Joe, that's… How did we… How did we get here?"

[BLACK BOX ENTRY 4439 - COURSE SET: RA 2° 42' 21" / DEC +83° 32' 24" - INITIATED BY JOINT OVERVIEW ENTITY.]

" _ I brought you here...it seems. _ " 

"...what?! Why?"

[ _ BRING HER] _

" _ I don't know. _ "

\--

_ Low Orbit Space Station: "Lifeboat" - In the orbit of Saturn _

_ 11:35 PM UCT, February 17th, 2026; 1 hour after the Incident _

"I restarted your core systems." Cleo's voice is muted and monotonous. "You weren't making any sense, and to be quite honest, I'm fucking terrified right now. And anyway, without you I'm not going anywhere, so. Welcome back." She laughs incredulously. "First off, let's try this again. Joe, voice authenticate."

[VOICE AUTHENTICATION]

"Doctor Cleo Morana. One four zero, four one two."

[CONFIRMED]

"Okay. So, Joe, here's the deal. I'm stuck in the EAS arm for now. I think it's related to power, but a lot of hatches are fully locked down, so, I'm going to try something different here." Cleo grabbed a sphere from beside her and held it up to Joe's camera lens. 

[AUDIO FEED CONNECTED]

[VIDEO FEED CONNECTED]

"There we go." She held the sphere up to her face. "Okay, Joe, I have rigged a connection sphere for you to use." To be honest, she was quite proud of herself. Computers and robotics were False's and Iskall's specialties, not hers. She was bioscience and medicine, but with some DIY tinkering, Joe was now in a controllable device. "You should be able to take control of this and fly around the station. It'll let you reach parts of the station your cameras can't see, and it'll let you wirelessly connect to non-station devices, like laptops." Now, time to see whether Joe could actually move around now, instead of being stuck in a computer. The thought immediately made Cleo roll her eyes at herself. Joe wasn't a person. Joe was an AI with a pleasant voice, that was all. Pushing herself backwards out of EAS-9, Cleo told Joe: "Try it. Fly over to me." She felt like a mother telling her child to walk on its own for the very first time -- if that child had just sent her about 1 billion miles from home, that is. Using the propulsion system of the sphere, Joe moved towards her in a straight line. Perfect. 

Once Joe had gotten the hang of flying around -- even AIs needed practice, apparently -- Cleo told him: "Right. So, the rest of the station is dark, and the Horizon arm is running on emergency power. The solar array is giving us next to nothing this far from the sun. However…" Did she really want to do this? She had no choice, really. If she waited, the power would run out, and so would her oxygen. Taking a deep breath, Cleo continued: "...we do have an experimental fusion reactor on board. The EFR. If that can generate enough power, we might just be able to get the universal hatches to open. See what you can do. I'll find a way to contact the rest of the crew." Letting Joe handle a nuclear reaction didn't seem like the wisest decision, but it was the safest option. Joe could enter modules without needing to make sure they were pressurised first, and without needing decent air quality and a stable temperature. Besides, the reactor was Cub's thing. She had absolutely no idea how it worked. As Joe flew off, Cleo turned her focus back to the communication menu in front of her. No-one's signal was showing up. This was bad. This was so, so bad. The lights flickered suddenly, and her screen read:  _ Power Redirected. _

"Thank you, Joe." At least that was going to plan. That was something. She needed to get her oxygen supply stable, though. EAS-9 was quickly running out. Just as Cleo pushed herself away from the workbench, the entire station went dark again, and a piercing noise reached her ears, while things thumped against metal in the distance. 

"Uh, Joe? Is that you? Joe, respond! Cut off the noise!" She knew this noise. She'd experienced it before.

"Joe? It's happening again! What are you doing?!"

[BRING HER]

"Joe! Make it stop!!"

Suddenly, a series of flashing images appeared in front of her. White lines against a dark hexagonal background -- schematics. What was… 

"I can see it, Joe." It...it was amazing. "Can you see it?" This was… "It's… I can't explain it. I can feel it." It was loud, and bright, and showing her images. She could only stare. Was it...talking to Joe? Joe seemed to be responding. It flashed red, blue, white, green, orange. It didn't seem angry, though. 

"...we should go…"

The images disappeared, and a tremor shocked Cleo's awareness back up to full speed.

"Joe! The station is moving; where are we going? Joe, respond! Joe?!"

\--

_ Low Orbit Space Station: "Lifeboat" - In the orbit of Saturn _

_ 00:25 AM UCT, February 18th, 2026; 2 hours after the Incident _

"I don't know why or how you are doing this, if you're even the one doing this. But I need you to help me, Joe. I need to know what is going on." Cleo sighed. "I need the team. Give me a diagnostic. I need to know why I can't get into the universal module."

" _ Module EAS-3 hull contact points are unresponsive. _ "

"They might have taken some stress during the spin. The power is fine, but the contact points are misaligned. That...we can fix." Maybe. Cleo was going to try, anyway. "Looks like you'll be going on your first spacewalk, Joe. Head out through the airlock, and reset the clamps on the outer hull of EAS-3." Cleo held her breath as she watched the camera feed from Joe's sphere, moving out of the station and into space. Seeing Saturn behind the station was absolutely magnificent. It was stunning. And terrifying. 

Cleo could hear the clamps being reset in the distance, with the unmistakable sound of metal and hydraulics. The light on her screen changed from red to green.

"Joe! I think that's working! It's working! It's going to take a few minutes while the module connection runs its pressure checks." In the meantime, she could send Joe to go check out the damage on the station exterior. 

" _ The solar arrays are showing evidence of torsion and stress. _ " The arrays were fragile. Whatever had happened to the station; the arrays had no chance. 

"Take a closer look at the Chinese and Russian arms, please?" The damage to the top of them looked pretty severe. Scarily severe. 

" _ Audio file recovered." _

"Play it."

" _ CF -> CM - IN MY SUIT, HEADING OUT - Cleo… I'm in my suit. I don't know what is happening. I was trying to unlock the door after the lockdown and the module started shaking and then...Joe...jettisoned the module? How did Joe jettison the fucking module, Cleo? He shouldn't be able to do that! I'm going to try and work my way around the station exterior...shit! _ " Oh no. Oh no, oh no, oh no. But...if Cub had gone out, why didn't she see him anywhere?

" _ An unknown material is present at hull fracture points. _ " It looked eerily similar to the red stuff Cleo had found in EAS-4 after the fire, but what the Hell was it? She had no time and no resources to figure it out now. 

“Bring the sphere back inside, and meet me in EAS-3. Let’s get these hatches open.” Cleo quickly said a silent prayer to every God she knew of, asking for the safety of the others. Cub, False, Grian, Iskall, and Xisuma. 

After the spacewalk, Joe’s sphere was completely out of power, so Cleo would have to rely on the AIs presence through the cameras throughout the station. A green light began blinking, and she saw herself on Joe’s video source. Okay.

“The hatch lights are on,” Cleo told Joe. “Looks like the connection to Universal is holding! Great work. Now, lift the lockdown on the hatch, please.” A string of small national flags hung just above her head, showing multiple different nationalities. False’s doing once again, she presumed. Grabbing one of Joe’s portable 12-bit cameras, she moved up into the next module. 

“Grian? False? Iskall? Where the Hell is everyone?” Looking around, she saw nothing but the empty modules. “Xisuma?” she asked, a hint of tremor to her voice. Nothing in UN-1. As she turned towards her left, a shiver ran down her spine. Why was the link door to the central hub closed? “Cub? Are you there?” Cleo grabbed hold of a handrail and propelled herself and Joe towards the closed door. The hatch lights were green, so it was unlocked. Pressing the button, she opened the door.

She wanted to scream.

“Oh my God… No, no, no, who is that?”

Someone was floating in the middle of the hub, motionlessly. They were frozen in a free-falling position. As she approached the person, Cleo suddenly recognised the body. 

“Oh, you poor soul.” The flag on the breast of the suit confirmed what she had thought, even without removing the man’s helmet. “Iskall...I’m so sorry.” She pulled his lifeless body down into the recess at their feet, so he seemed to be sitting. It had to be exposure. The hub must have gotten depressurised at some point. “Fuck...I’m so sorry.” She placed Iskall's hands into his lap. Should she take off his helmet? She wasn’t sure she wanted to see what he looked like, dead. Better to remember him as he was, instead of bloated and internally boiling and freezing at the same time. That in itself was enough of a horrifying mental image to keep it on. Cleo kissed his visor. She was no chaplain, and had no idea how to conduct the last rites, and she honestly doubted whether they were even applicable, but still she whispered: "Lord, have mercy."

Joe’s universal camera systems were finally back online now, so that was a step in the right direction. Just as Cleo was about to give the AI new orders, a radio signal came crackling through the speakers.

“Hello? Is- is someone there?”

“False, it’s Cleo. You have no idea how happy I am to hear you!” From one emotional extreme to the other, Cleo was suddenly filled with pure elation. She wasn’t alone. She wasn’t alone. She wasn’t alone. 

“Cleo! Oh my God, Cleo! I’m stuck in Shenzhou; where are you?” False sounded remarkably present and aware. 

“We’ve just made it to Central,” Cleo replied, trying to locate False on the screens in front of her.

“Who is ‘we’?”

“Me and Joe. I don’t know where anyone else is yet, except…” Should she even tell False, while she was still stuck somewhere in the station? Well, she had started the sentence. No backing out now. “...except Iskall. He’s...he’s dead, False.”

“Oh God. How?!” Bile rose in Cleo’s throat.

“It looks like Central depressurised. It’s okay now though. He’s in his Sokol suit, but I don’t think he had O2.”

“What about Xisuma? Cub? Grian?”

“Nothing yet. We had like a full power outage. Joe lost most of his functions and we’re slowly getting him back up to speed.”

“Okay.” Cleo could hear False trying to get her breathing under control. “I’d like to help, but I’m stuck in the Chinese arm. There’s something wrong in UN-3. It’s all locked down.”

“I’ll get Joe to look into it right now,” Cleo responded. “Joe? Check station alerts. Make it the priority if you can.” She had to get to False, or get False a way to get to her. If they were together, they’d be capable of more. False was a physicist. Maybe she could figure out what in God’s name was going on. 

“ _ Audio file recovered. _ ” That...wasn’t exactly what she had asked for.

“Play it, but continue with your tasks.”

“ _ XV -> ALL - ALMOST THERE - “Message to crew, Joe. Hi everyone. I know a lot of you have been getting fed up with requests from Houston, and from me, that have been butting into your work this past week. I just want to say that I’m hearing you all loud and clear...especially Grian, as he’s been the loudest. I know it’s been frustrating, but we’re getting to the end of it now. We’ll be back on...expected EASA practice soon. Really soon. You’ve just got to trust me. When we get through to the other side, I can maybe fill you in on what’s been happening. _ ” Oh God, Xisuma. Hearing his voice was reassuring as well as terrifying. Cleo remembered getting the message, a few days ago. It had been so remarkably vague, but now...no. It couldn’t be. Xisuma couldn’t have had anything to do with this. If he had known about this, there was no way he would have taken his crew along with him. No way.

Cleo focused on the system in front of her. If she could get the crew tracking systems back online, she would be able to figure out where everyone else was, hopefully. 

" _ The coolant network is reporting multiple errors. Recommend investigation. _ " That wasn't pressing right now, so far away from the sun's heat, but it could definitely give them problems later on. The last thing they needed was another fire.

"Have a look at the network hub please, Joe." As Joe relocated to the cameras in UN-3, where the coolant network was located, False suddenly spoke: "I can hear you working in there, Joe. The door is locked down; it seems there's an override active so I can't open it myself. Is there something atmospheric wrong?"

"I'll have Joe look into it, False," Cleo replied. "He's fixing the cooling right now." 

" _ Audio file recovered. _ " Again? It wasn't Joe's fault; Cleo had told him to recover as much data as possible, but she hadn't realised that would also mean a lot of internal communication. Was she ready to hear a teammate's voice again? Of course, it could also be a message from Houston while she had been unconscious. Cleo sighed.

"Might as well play it." 

" _ CF -> CM - DATE NIGHT - Hey Joe, message for Cleo. Hey, it's me. Good news is Xisuma finally pulled me off USES reactor tests as Houston want the EFR on stand-by tomorrow. So...out of nowhere the Captain gave us a window between shifts, meaning we get to be awake at the same time for once… maybe work on the Herald? A new restaurant just opened called EAS-12; the food is terrible but it's got a great view. See you there at 0100? I'd suggest hanging out at your bunk, but...it's a tight fit, and that woman who sleeps opposite keeps rollin' her eyes whenever I suggest a new scoop… See ya later, Cleo. Message ends, Joe, thanks. _ " God, Cub, and module 12. If he was in it when it jettisoned, like the other message said... Had he been waiting for her? Cleo swallowed back a sob. No time for grief, especially when he could still be out there. This was rescue, not recovery.

"I can see the light in here flashing!" False, again. "It's checking the system. Whatever you're doing, keep going."

"It's Joe doing that," Cleo replied. "I'm still in Central." 

"It's so good to hear your voice," came the answer. Cleo smiled.

"Yeah, it is." Her screen flashed: the coolant system was back online. "Great work, Joe! False, the connection between UN-3 and UN-4 as well as the Shenzhou arm should now be restored!" False grunted, and as Joe's cameras switched to the door to UN-3 on the Shenzhou side, Cleo could see her pulling at the door in her white EVA suit she normally used for spacewalks.

"It still won't open. It's saying something about contact points. Cleo?"

"We had the same problem on the EAS arm. I think whatever moved us to Saturn, caused us to shake…"

"Wait, what? Saturn?!" Oh. Of course, False was stuck in a module without windows. Whoops.

"Yeah… Sorry, I should have mentioned that. I'd say it's a long story, but all I know is that Joe thinks he brought us here.

"Shit… Saturn? I mean… Christ, I don't know where to begin. Look, I'll head outside to try and get this sorted. I still have my suit and plenty of O2." False was right in front of the camera lens, but all Cleo could see was the reflections in her protective visor. 

"Be careful, False." She'd just found her again; Cleo wasn't about to lose her to an unsafe tether to the station. 

"I'll be fine, Cleo; don't worry." Cleo could only watch as False disappeared off-screen. 

Well, there was no point in standing around. While Joe got the crew tracking sensors back online, she'd try to get the terminal working. 

" _ The tracker for Xisuma Void is showing corrupted data _ ." At least the system was back!

"There must be a networking issue. Is there any location or medical info?"

" _ Captain Xisuma Void is located in the Russian arm. I am unable to determine his exact location. There is no biomedical data being received. _ " Russian arm. Okay. That sounded doable at least.

"What about Cub?" Please, let there be a signal. 

" _ The tracker for Cub Fan is showing a weak connection. The location of Cub Fan is unknown. There is no biomedical data being received. _ " Cleo didn't understand. Maybe there was interference going on? Saturn was extremely magnetized, so that could be messing with their signal strength. 

"False, I've got a fix on Xisuma. He's in the Salyut somewhere."

"Good, get him to sort this mess out! Tell him he owes me an explanation!" False chuckled hesitantly over the communication line. With the power back on everywhere, Cleo could now finally activate the cameras in the Russian arm.

"Get a visual on the Captain for me, Joe. Where is he?" Cleo watched as Joe cycled through the Salyut modules. 

" _ Document recovered _ ." 

"Zoom in on it, please." The camera showed a piece of paper stuck to the wall of RU-4. It seemed to be a sketch from Iskall's notes, showing the station orbiting the Earth. Apparently, they had changed from their standard orbit of 336 km from the Earth's surface to one of 410 km a while ago. How did she not know this? Strange. 

" _ Audio file recovered. _ "

"You know the drill, Joe. Play it." Might as well have some background noise while they searched for Xisuma.

" _ IA -> FS - SURVEY DATA - "Response to False. I am sorry False, but I cannot help you with the survey data. The Captain has all my time. He's even broken protocol to delay my sleep cycle for some…"Space Janitor" duties. Watching dials, running checks, backing up transmission data for a full five hours… All while Joe does the same, of course! I don't know why he has us scheduled like this. We're all on different sleep arrangements and we barely get time to work together. This isn't how we normally do things, if you're wondering! I'm sure future missions will feel a little less isolated from one another. If you need anything, just shout! Iskall. Message ends. _ " That was...strange. Xisuma never ran missions like that. Then again, Iskall wasn't wrong. Cleo hadn't been able to spend any time with anyone in weeks. 

" _ The cameras in RU-6 are failing to initialise. _ " She could do that manually then, fine. As the feed came online, Joe reported: " _ Audio file recovered. _ "

"Go ahead."

" _ XV -> ALL - THANK YOU - "Message for crew. Whatever happens next, thank you. All of you. _ " ...what? " _ Captain Xisuma Void is located in RU-6. _ " 

"We should be able to access the Russian arm now," Cleo realised out loud. "Xisuma? Captain? It's Cleo. I have your location. I'm heading to you now." Cleo's hands were shaking as she moved away from the terminal, and through the UN modules into the Salyut arm. 

When she reached RU-6, she found Xisuma sitting in a recess, in his white suit, complete with helmet and O2 tank, just like False, but his sun visor was flipped up, so Cleo could see his face. He was motionless. 

"Captain? Xisuma?" Cleo pushed herself downwards. "No… Please…" Trembling, she touched Xisuma's arms. "I can't believe this is happening! Oh God… False?"

"Cleo? Cleo, talk to me!"

"He's… He's dead, False."

"No… God… Cleo, what is happening?!" Cleo couldn't, wouldn't give her an answer. "Cleo, I need your help. I'm at the panel, but the controls aren't responding. Suggestions?" Despite everything, False was on the station exterior. Cleo needed to focus.

"I'll get Joe out to you. He can do it wirelessly. Joe, use the sphere in RU-2. It's right next to the airlock." As Cleo heard Joe's camera connection cycle away, she accessed the sphere's video feed. She watched as Joe flew around the station until he reached False, who was holding onto the Chinese arm with one hand, with Saturn's north pole behind her. "Reset the hull contact points between China and Universal please, Joe. That way, False, you can just enter here instead of having to maneuver all the way over to the EAS arm."

"Sounds good." False laughed nervously. Cleo heard the telltale sounds of clamps resetting, and lights turned green.

"False, Joe sorted it out. You can get back inside and meet me in Universal now."

"Okay, I much prefer that option." False began turning around.

"Joe seems to think… False… The storm…" The hexagonal vortex at Saturn's north pole was swirling faster than before, with lightning flashing everywhere. 

"You're breaking up." The magnetic fields, again. "I'm heading back to CN-3. I'll be with you soon." 

"Joe? Are you seeing this?!" Cleo asked, her heart racing in her chest. "The storm on the planet, it's…" 

Something coming from the pole struck both False and Joe. All Cleo could see was how False was thrown off of the station in an uncontrollable spin, motionless at the same time. She couldn't speak, couldn't do anything to stop it. All she could do was watch. 

Then everything went black.

\--

“Hey, Joe. I got you in another sphere.” Cleo looked at the small circular sphere containing her only current companion before returning her gaze to the window in front of her. “I don’t know what just happened, but I feel…” Her lips felt heavy, like she was trying to move through molasses. “I feel like I’ve changed. And that’s not the only thing to have changed; take a look.” Grabbing Joe’s sphere, she moved the camera lens to the window, showing him the view.

Showing him the other station that was floating in the distance.

“Someone is coming to get us.”

\--

_ Low Orbit Space Station: "Lifeboat" - In the orbit of Saturn _

_ 3:55 AM UCT, February 18th, 2026; 6 hours after the Incident _

It had been a long time, and the others were not moving. There had been no attempt at communication. All there was, was a white speckle. 

“I don’t know how much of this I can take,” Cleo told Joe. It felt somewhat ridiculous, but she had to tell someone. It might as well be an AI without emotions. “They’re just hanging there. While UC-2 pressurises, we might as well try to contact them in the meantime. Assuming they aren’t all dead.” She paused. “Look, I know this makes no sense, and you’ll probably just give me some broken response, but I’m glad you’re here, Joe.”

“ _ I am here, Cleo _ .” Cleo sighed on a chuckle.

“Yeah… Yeah you are, aren’t you? One more time, Joe. Voice authenticate.”

[VOICE AUTHENTICATION]

“Cleo Morana, one four zero, four one two.”

[NO VOICE PRINT MATCH DETECTED]

“ _ Accepted. _ ” Cleo smiled. Moving to the communications station, she examined their options. It was all functioning, but the array was still facing the wrong way: it was pointed into the direction of where the Earth had once been positioned, and she needed to move it to face the other station. Maybe the astrophysics lab could help her find the exact coordinates of the others. Secondly, their broadcasts wouldn’t be going anywhere without the Captain’s -- Xisuma's -- authorisation codes. Hopefully, that would be somewhere in his personal module.

“Joe, please go to EAS-7 and find the Captain’s authorisation code so I can enter it into the system, and set up the comms array. If there are any new station alerts, let me know.” She might actually be able to action some repairs herself now. Joe began cycling through the cameras on his way to the EAS arm, and Cleo felt...calm. Calmer than she had expected, but it was coming in handy right now. Though she technically knew how to operate the broadcasting system, this was Xisuma's area of expertise. Time to show what she was made of.

“ _ Cleo. My cameras in EAS-7 have failed to initialise. _ ” Strange. Maybe Xisuma turned them off. Cleo manually turned them back on.

“Should be fixed. Try again?” Silence. In that case, it had probably worked, or Joe would have told her otherwise.

“ _ Audio file recovered. _ ” That wasn’t an access code, but who knew. Maybe it’d be in there. Or some answers. That would also be good.

“Go ahead, Joe. Play.”

“ _ XV -> HOME - GOOD LUCK - “Message for home, Joe. Good morning Etho. I… hope everything is okay down there. I just wanted to say good luck with your job interview today. We’ve got something going on up here that, well, I hope it will explain a lot about...how it’s been. Why I had to leave again. Tell Keralis we’ll talk soon. I love you both. That’s it, Joe. _ ” Oh God, home. How in the world was Cleo going to get back home if she couldn’t reach the other station soon?

“ _ Document recovered. _ ” Joe’s cameras zoomed in on a file on the wall of Xisuma's bunk. It stated: ‘Summary of Daily Observations of Marker’. ‘Marker’? What was that about? It had been prepared by the ‘EASA Lifeboat Control Group, Marker Research Center’. A long list of astral coordinates filled the page, followed by the message: “Proceed as planned. Target date remains February 17. Confirm. Team members: Xisuma Void, Doc Mössner, and the Lifeboat Review Group.” What the Hell? Did Xisuma... No. It couldn’t be. Could it?

“ _ The code is Precursor-1. It appears to be a mission code. _ ”

“Precursor-1? But that’s not a mission code, Joe. What the Hell is Precursor-1?” Cleo tried it anyway. Surprisingly, it worked. This was getting stranger by the minute. “Go to RU-4 for the astrophysics lab.”

Behind Cleo’s back, on Joe’s camera source, the strange black hexagon appeared again, showing Joe flashing images. The AI responded back, and it disappeared.

“ _ Document recovered. _ ” Cleo turned around to look at the screen. It was a letter, written by Iskall.

_ STATION FUNCTIONALITY REVIEW - SUMMARY _

_ I have performed the first station functionality review as scheduled, now that the mission has been active for one full calendar month. I must be candid here. I believe the committee would be disappointed with these results, if they weren’t already aware. _

_ I’ve liaised with the crew prior to launch and again since, and the general consensus is that the station does not have the required equipment and functions required for allocated missions. The expectations were that this was a flagship station, with state of the art hardware, but what we’re seeing in the new sections of the ship is very bare. The Universal Ring is barely functional beyond providing access. These rooms are lacking in equipment, and it’s clear corners have been cut. _

_ I would ask RCSA to liaise with the committee, EASA and CASA in order to better understand why the station is so poorly equipped compared to the spec we had trained for. Are we expecting additional equipment to be shipped up after an undisclosed delay? If not, then either we have been badly let down by our friends in the committee, or that they want to keep the cost of this mission as low as possible. _

_ I’m happy to go on the record with these statements, as the facts contained within this review are sufficient evidence to the claim. _

_ Iskall Åttiofem, Lifeboat Technical Officer _

Cleo remembered Åttiofem asking her what her resources were like. He was correct; the medical equipment was at least two decades old. It was functional, but that was about it. Could it be…

“ _ Rescue Station Coordinates: Right ascension 16 - 14 - 22; Declination 48 - 11 - 11. _ ” 

“Okay, great. Enter them into the broadcast signal router, please.” A familiar beep. “Joe, that’s a good sound. You’ve got us back in business!” Cleo took a deep breath. Here goes nothing. Pressing the button for external broadcast to all available sources, she began: “This is Cleo Morana on board Lifeboat, please respond.” Nothing but white noise. “This is Lifeboat. I have visual. Please respond.” Again, nothing. “If you can hear me, please let me know in some way. It’s, um… It’s just me left. And Joe. I’m not sure how we ended up here. There was a massive power outage, some noise, and then… we were here. I’m assuming you know all this if you’re here to pick us up.” Still, no response. “Repeat: This is Cleo Morana on board Lifeboat. Please…” Cleo’s voice broke. “...respond!” Suddenly, something started beeping. An incoming comms message? It had to be the rescue station! It couldn’t be ground control, that would be too quick. Joe played the incoming message, but it was just noise. Encrypted. “See what you can do, Joe. The encryption key should be somewhere on the station.”

“ _ This is Cub Fan on board the <distorted> I am. Please respond. I’m in Chinese module 3 but I <distorted>. Cleo… If you can hear me. You have to come… <distorted> … another station … He’s trying <distorted> … Cleo, please…. _ ”

“Oh my God!” Cleo exclaimed. “He’s alive! How is he…? He got to the other station! I knew he wasn’t dead! I just knew it! He must have made it across after we saw False, when the rescue station arrived!” She had to get out of here and over to Cub. “Joe, I’m heading towards the airlock. Get in your sphere. You’re coming too.” Grabbing her helmet on the way to EAS-11, Cleo waited for Joe to join her in the airlock.

Cleo had seen a movie once, where they had to jump from one spaceship to another. They used the explosive decompression of a module to fly across. Why bother? You could just aim...and gently push off. And now she was in that exact situation...there was no way in Hell she would trust her trajectory to an explosion. So...that’s where Joe would come in.

“Okay.” She exhaled. “Are you ready?” The internal door to the airlock closed, and Cleo could hear the depressurisation alarm quiet down as the sound died in the vaccuum. That was as much of a message as she was going to get, she supposed. The external hatch opened, and Cleo followed Joe’s sphere outside. This was only her second time outside the station...and now she had two stations. As she looked at the other station, she mumbled: “Talk about jumping off into the deep end…” She tethered herself and Joe’s sphere together for the jump. “If I start to drift, you can course-correct using your sphere. I’m not sure the science is spot-on, but it’s better than nothing. You can be my anchor.” Pushing off, Cleo started the jump from the Lifeboat to the other station. “Oh God, what am I doing, what am I doing, what am I doing?” Joe was being pulled along by the tether.

As she neared the other station, Cleo realised it was identical to her own. They probably built a secondary station, a prototype maybe? Why would they need two stations, though? Getting closer, Joe began drifting. Cleo could only watch as the sphere slammed into a module on the rescue station, while she desperately tried to grab hold of something to anchor herself. 

“I’ve got us!” She was grasping onto, well, what on her station would have been the Shenzhou arm.

Inside, Cleo turned on the light of Joe’s sphere. This was...weird. It was exactly identical to the Lifeboat on the inside as well. She thought they had reused sections of existing stations to build the Lifeboat? There was no power, though, by the looks of things.

“I guess you will be my light then, Joe. I think I prefer having you up in front of me anyway,” Cleo joked nervously. The station was completely dark. “Straight ahead then, nice and slow.” As Joe began flying out in front of her, Cleo checked her wrist. Her suit was reporting high concentrations of ammonia in the air. Better keep her helmet on, then.

“ _ My systems are not connected to these hatches. _ ”

“Right, sorry.” She would have to open them manually. “Just hang on, I’ll try to budge them.” Thankfully, it opened without much trouble. “There we go. Let’s keep going.” This was so weird. It was identical to the inch. So much for the Lifeboat being a ‘flagship’. The next hatch was already open; they could get into this station’s Universal ring.

“Cub? Do you read me? Where are you? We’re here.”

“ _ There are signs of injury to the station crew.” _

“Oh my God.” A helmet was floating a few feet in front of Cleo and Joe. “Is that...oh God!” Please, let there be someone alive on this station. Anyone. 

“ _ Document recovered. _ ” Cleo had never cancelled Joe’s first objective: recover your memory. Approaching it, she recognised it. It had also been taped to the wall of the Lifeboat: it was a news article on Grian, talking about how he was the lead of an internationally-funded global warming research programme for the Chinese Climate Initiative, whilst on board of the state-of-the-art Low Orbit Space Station ‘LOSS’. So much for a low orbit. Maybe the crew of this station wanted to know what the Lifeboat was doing?

“ _ Audio file recovered. _ ” It felt a bit intrusive, but…

“Play it.”

“ _ XV -> ALL - GET ON WITH IT - “Message to crew, Joe. Hi everyone. I know a lot of you have been getting fed up about requests from Houston, and from me, that have been butting into your work this past week. I just wanted to say that you all have a role to play here, and getting frustrated isn’t helping anyone. Frustration leads to mistakes, nothing more. As you know, some aspects of every mission are above your paygrade, and you know I can’t divulge anything more than that. Keep focused on the tasks at hand, please _ .” What? Xisuma? But...how was that even possible? Maybe it was an old message from one of his previous missions? But Joe was created specifically for the Lifeboat. Cleo didn’t understand. Unless there was a different person who also had the initials XV on board of this station, and they also had a J.O.E.?

“ _ I have no connection to the UN-3 ULB hatch. Cleo, I require your assistance. _ ” Oh, right. Okay. Cleo moved over to the hatch. It would barely open. As she pulled it up, the dark red gooey liquid from before splattered off of the bottom edge. What was that stuff? God, it was freezing cold in Central. One laptop on the far wall still worked.

“What’s that laptop, Joe?”

“ _ This is a laptop belonging to Doctor Cleo Morana. _ ”

“That’s not mine, Joe, you must be mistaken.” Did AIs make mistakes? “Give it here. There’s a message…” 

Cleo clicked ‘play’, and her own, frenzied, crying voice came out through the loudspeakers: “This is Cleo Morana, on board Lifeboat. I don’t know who is left, but we have to stick together if we’re going to make it through. I… I don’t know where Xisuma is now. I’m going to try and lock myself in UC-2 if Joe can open it up. Cub -- there’s another station outside. It’s the same as ours. What the fuck is going on? Please, please come and get me. Cub, Iskall, False, Grian, please, I love you.”

“That’s not me, Joe, that can’t be.” 

Cleo felt like her head was about to explode. 

“This isn’t another station...this is  _ our  _ station.” 

Suddenly, a light shone into Central from the Salyut side. “Quick!” Cleo pushed off of the wall and propelled herself into UN-6, heading towards whoever was there. “Cub! Cub, is that you?” The person moved away from her. “Cub! Wait! Where are you going?!” What the Hell, he was getting away! He was headed for RU-6. Cleo followed him as quick as she could. RU-6 was a dead end.

It wasn’t Cub.

It was Xisuma, sitting in the same position as Cleo had found him on...the Lifeboat she had jumped from. Had she just imagined the person in the orange suit?

“Can he hear me?” Oh, what was she saying; Xisuma was dead. They had seen him. “Captain? ...Xisuma?” Ugh, she couldn’t see a thing. “Joe, bring your light here please. Careful.” Xisuma's visor was steamed up. He couldn’t have been dead for long. “Joe, what the...Shit!” Xisuma suddenly started moving. “Shit! Captain?!”

“Cleo? Is that you?” Xisuma looked up at Cleo’s helmet. There was a red glare to his eyes. Cleo’s face was obscured by her radiation visor.

“Yeah, it’s me. I’m here. I’m here.”

“No, that can’t be,” Xisuma replied, reaching for Cleo’s gloved hands. “How did you get back here?”

“What do you mean, back here?” Xisuma looked at her like she was a ghost.

“I saw you go out an airlock with no suit on.” That didn’t make any sense. Cleo shook her head.

“Why would I go out the airlock without a suit?” Xisuma turned her head over to Joe’s sphere.

“Because Cub opened the fucking door on you.” 

“What?” Cleo sat down across from her captain. Xisuma was breathing irregularly, and he was paler than Cleo had ever seen her be. 

“Cleo...I’m screwed.” Glancing down at his suit computer, Cleo realised what was going on. This was bad.

“Okay, stop, Xisuma. Take it slow. You’re almost out of oxygen. No gulps.”

“How long has it been since we ended up here?” Deep, slow breaths were the way to go. Cleo realised she should probably heed her own advice; she had no idea how long it would take to get this station up and running again. She was good for now, but all O2 supplies ran out eventually…

“A few hours, give or take? I’m not sure.” It was chaos in her mind, and she felt like she had lost all concept of time. Looking as to how she had jumped from her station to...her station, maybe time wasn’t that reliable of a perimeter right now anyway. “Xisuma, we’re… We’re not in Earth orbit. We’re, um, in the orbit of Saturn.”

“Yes, Cleo, I know. We spoke about that just after it happened,” Xisuma snapped.

“Xisuma. This is the first time I’ve seen you since it happened. I got a message from Cub not long ago, that’s why I’m here. Where is he?”

“I don’t know. I’ve been running around trying to find something to repair this suit.” Xisuma raised his arm. “There’s a tear in it. We need to pressurise this module, Cleo, or I’m dead. There’s a tiny bit of power. We can redirect them to one or two hatches at a time, but not all of them.”

“Okay.” Cleo took a moment to think. “Let’s get the pressure fixed, and then we find Cub.”

“Cleo, forget Cub!”

“He did not push me out of an airlock, Xisuma; I’m fine!” Cleo wanted to yell, but she kept her volume down. Maybe the lack of oxygen was getting to Xisuma’s head; that was definitely a possibility. 

“He killed Grian, Cleo. I saw it myself.”

“Cub would never do that. Not to Grian, or to me, or to anyone.”

“I know, but he’s not himself. He’s dangerous. Cleo, he says he can see words and noise in his vision. He keeps saying ‘ _ bring her _ ’ over and over again; he’s lost it!” Xisuma was definitely losing it now.

“Joe, go find Cub. I’ll wait here with Xisuma until we get pressurised.” Cleo waited for Joe to move the sphere out of the module, then she closed the hatch. All they could do, was wait.

“ _ Audio file recovered _ .” Some of the laptops were still working, apparently. Xisuma didn’t seem to be able to hear Joe. That made sense; Joe was connected to Cleo’s suit communication system, but not Xisuma’s. 

“Yes,” Cleo whispered. Xisuma didn’t notice.

“FS _ -> FS - STORM ON SATURN - “I still have scope access even in this low power state. Grian would have loved this - with it aimed down at the storm on Saturn, you can see so much of its intricacies. It’s a gold mine. If they knew we were going to be here, it makes perfect sense that they would have Grian with us. Me too, I guess. All of us… _ ” False… What did she mean by ‘if they knew’? Who knew? Houston? If Houston knew this was going to happen, why would they have sent them up in the first place? They couldn’t even talk to Houston; there was no point.

“ _ Audio file recovered _ .” Again?

“Okay.”

“ _ IA -> GROUND CONTROL - EMERGENCY - “Message to Houston, Joe. Joe?? Shit… Houston, I don’t know if Joe is broadcasting but we have problems here, serious problems - you have to make contact ASAP. I saw Xisuma heading to RU-6 in a hurry and lock himself in. Is he trying to leave?! He pushed me out of the way - I’ve never seen him like that. Iskall. _ ” Xisuma? He probably was just trying to find a way to repair his suit. Cleo could imagine getting a tear in it while the station wasn’t pressurised would make you panic. She wanted to ask Xisuma about it, but the man was finally calm, and she didn’t want to agitate him. Questions later. First, Cub, and oxygen.

Joe reported another audio file. Cleo whispered her acknowledgement.

“ _ IA -> ALL - CUB INJURED?? - “Broadcast All - I just saw Cub; he’s covered in blood. What the fuck is going on?? Where is everyone else? I don’t know if he’s hurt....or someone else is? Please, someone, respond. Iskall Åttiofem. _ ” As Cleo was about to ask Joe about it, the AI requested for the hatch to RU-1 to be opened. She let Joe through, and into UN-5. She desperately wished she could see Joe’s video feed right now, or even just hear the sounds. 

“ _ Audio file recovered. Playing. _ ” Apparently, Joe wasn’t waiting for her confirmation anymore. “ _ XV -> ALL - SUGGESTIONS WELCOME - “Message to crew, Joe. I know you are all afraid of what is happening. To the station. To us… and quite right so. I just want you to know...that there isn’t enough room for all of us to get off of this station, so we’re going to have to work that out somehow. Suggestions are welcome _ .” Get off of the station? Had some of the crew evacuated this one? Where had they gone, then? Cleo could only wait in silence while Joe explored the rest of the station, waiting for the next message.

“ _ Audio file recovered. CM -> CF - GET Joe ONLINE - Message to Cub, Joe. _ ” Oh, God. This was...her. But how? “ _ Cub, are you there? The hull is secure, and oxygen candles burning. We’re building up humidity and that’s going to take its toll though. Try and stay cool. I’m heading to UC-2, to see if I can get Joe back online. We need him to work out what’s just happened _ .” She sounded fairly level-headed. This was all way too confusing to work out while on a limited supply of oxygen. Xisuma opened his eyes.

“Did you hear the noise too?” Cleo asked him. Maybe she could at least try to keep him conscious.

“We did. And every time things got worse, and worse, and worse.”

“What do you mean, worse?”

“Cub. He said they were signals, that only he could see them, but that they weren’t meant for him. I’m telling you, he’s dangerous.” That didn’t sound at all like the Cub Cleo was used to. It didn’t sound like anyone on the ship. 

“ _ The hatch to UC-2 is locked. _ ”

“Wait!” Xisuma protested. “You can’t let him in there; that’s him mainframe!” Cleo shook her head.

“It’s not  _ my  _ Joe’s mainframe. Opening now, Joe.”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake, Cleo!” Cleo shrugged. It was open now. It wasn’t as if things could get worse right now. “Stay away from the mainframe, Joe. It’s not functioning. It’s too risky to turn it on.”

“But what if we can learn something from it?” If Joe could get into this station’s mainframe, he could find its black box and see what happened. He could find the damage, and access sensors. It made perfect sense to Cleo. Besides, she trusted her Joe. She listened as her Joe talked to...this station’s Joe.

“WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO KNOW?”

“ _ What is your system status _ ?”

“ALL CORE FUNCTIONS ARE DISABLED. THERE IS INSUFFICIENT POWER TO ENABLE SERVICE.”

“ _ What is your J.O.E. online status? _ ”

“I AM HERE.”

“ _ What is your primary mission status _ ?”

“XISUMA VOID. CLEO MORANA - DECEASED. GRIAN WILTON - DECEASED. ISKALL ÅTTIOFEM - DECEASED. CUB FAN. FALSE SYMMETRY - DECEASED. PRIMARY MISSION STATUS IS INACTIVE. PREVIOUS MISSION LOGS ARE NOW AVAILABLE. DISPLAYING. AUTHENTICATION REQUIRED. AVAILABLE: WHISKEY - PRECURSOR-1 - PYTHON - SCORCHED EARTH.”

“ _ Precursor-1. _ ”

“ACCESS GRANTED.”

“ _ What is Joe’s role? _ ”

“INITIAL DISCOVERY OF THREE PATTERNS IN STANDARD KEPPLER DATASET. ACT AS STATION ASSISTANT. LOG ALL OBSERVATIONS. INTERPRET ANY AND ALL NEW DATA.”

“ _ What is Precursor-1 _ ?”

“PRECURSOR-1. MISSION DIRECTOR: DOC MÖSSNER. PROGRAM CAPTAIN: XISUMA VOID. CONSTRUCT L.O.S.S. - LOW ORBIT SPACE STATION “LIFEBOAT”. INSTALL J.O.E. - AI AGENT RESPONSIBLE FOR DISCOVERY. REACH EVENT MARKER. OBSERVE _. _ ”

“ _ What is Pattern 1 _ ?”

“THERE ARE 23 PAIRS OF IDENTICAL TRANSIT LIGHT CURVES FROM 46 DIFFERENT STARS WITHIN OUR GALAXY. THIS IS STATISTICALLY IMPOSSIBLE. EACH PAIR, LINKED, SHOWED CONVERGING CONNECTING VECTOR LINES AT ONE SINGLE POINT IN SPACE, HEREBY KNOWN AS ‘THE EVENT MARKER’, CLOSE TO EARTH’S POSITION APPROXIMATELY 4 YEARS FROM SIGNAL DISCOVERY. THIS PATTERN WAS LABELED ‘WHERE AND WHEN’.”

“ _ What is Pattern 2 _ ?”

“ON INSPECTION OF THE 46 LIGHT CURVES DISCOVERED IN PATTERN 1, EACH TRANSIT GRAPH CONTAINED A SPIKE. THIS OCCURRED AT EXACTLY THE SAME TIME FOR EACH. THIS WAS LABELED ‘SYNC POINT’.”

_ “What is Pattern 3 _ ?”

“OVERLAYING EACH OF THESE LIGHT CURVES ON THE SYNC POINT CREATES A NEW PATTERN OF SEQUENTIAL LIGHT CURVE TROUGHS. THERE WAS DEEPER DETAIL IN THE LIGHT CURVES THEMSELVES. WHEN ANALYSED, THEY SHOW A PERFECT DESCRIPTION OF THE HUMAN GENOME. EACH OF THE 23 PAIRS OF IDENTICAL PATTERNS SHOWS EACH CHROMOSOME IN MANKIND’S DNA CODE. THIS WAS LABELED ‘WHO’.”

“ _ What was the crew mission _ ?”

“THERE WAS NO ACTIVE CREW MISSION.”

“ _ What was the Captain’s mission _ ?”

“PRECURSOR-1 HAD ONE OBJECTIVE: APPROACH EVENT MARKER AT ‘WHERE AND WHEN’ WITH ‘WHO’, AND OBSERVE. WARNING. STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY FAILING. POWER LEVELS INSUFFIC… INSUFFIC… INSUFFIC…”

“You had a mission,” Cleo stated as calmly as she could.

“Yes,” Xisuma confirmed. “I had to get us all to the ‘marker’. A point in our orbit.”

“They sent us here?”

“It’s not like that. I don’t think anyone knew what would happen. That’s all I know.” Xisuma sighed. “I had to monitor a coordinate with the scope and get us there; that’s it. I’m just as in the dark as you, Cleo.”

“We need to speak to Ground Control,” Cleo decided.

“If you have power,” Xisuma replied, “I can use quantum comms to speak to them -- immediately.”

“What the Hell is quantum comms?” Cleo had never heard of such a thing. It sounded like something out of a B-rated sci-fi movie. 

“Get me onto your station, and I’ll show you.” Cleo nodded. Guess it was time for them to head over to their... _ her  _ station.

[BODY ENCOUNTERED IN MAINFRAME: DOCTOR CLEO MORANA - DECEASED]

“ _ Cleo. You have sustained fatal injuries. I am sorry. My...condolences. _ ”

“Joe? I can’t hear a word you’re saying. I’ll be with you soon.”

[SEARCH EAS-ARM FOR CUB FAN]

[AUDIO FILE RECOVERED]

[PLAYING]

“ _ CF -> ALL - BRING HER?! - “This has to stop. ‘Bring her,’ what the fuck is ‘bring her’ supposed to mean?? It’s out of control, I… _ ”

[ARCHIVED]

“Stay away from me! Leave me alone, okay? Come near me, and I swear to God…”

[SPHERE PICKED UP BY CREW]

“Joe? Joe! You got across… Did Cleo make it?” Cub Fan sighed, looking into the camera lens. “They knew, Joe. They put us up here, knowing something would happen. They didn’t know  _ what _ , but there was a messaging in the fucking stars. You found it, Joe, it told them where to be and when, and they put us up here, like bait or something. I knew I was expendable when I was in Delta, but this is… All of us. Listen, Joe. I’m injured. Coming here as a mistake. You need to find Cleo, and get us back to our own station. The fusion reactor on this...version...is unstable. Everything here is unstable. The reactor, J.O.E., Xisuma…” Cub angled Joe’s sphere so the camera would pick up on his abdomen.

[INJURY DETECTED: STABBED]

“He attacked me the moment I got inside...and I wasn’t the first to piss her off.” He pointed Joe’s camera upwards.

[BODY ENCOUNTERED IN EAS-ARM: CUB FAN - DECEASED]

“Joe. Get Cleo. Get us out of here. And stay away from Xisuma.”

[SPHERE PICKED UP BY CREW]

“Come on, troublemaker.”

[SECOND BODY ENCOUNTERED IN EAS-ARM: CUB FAN - DECEASED]

Cleo either was hearing things, or she just heard her Joe talking to someone just as Xisuma went to get him.

“Wait, Xisuma! Is someone there? Joe found someone, didn’t he?”

“It’s just a suit, Cleo.”

“But what about Cub?”

“Cub is gone, Cleo.”

“What?!” Alarms were going off everywhere. Xisuma had to hurry up, before the entire station blew up. As he reached Cleo by the airlock, with Joe’s sphere in his arms, he entered an override code and pushed Cleo out into space. Oh God, she really didn’t want to be doing this again. And she wasn’t tethered to anyone or anything this time! “Xisuma! I’m loose!” she screamed.

“You’ll be fine. We’re headed in the right direction.” A piece of debris was headed Cleo’s way. There was no way she could avoid it. It hit her straight in the middle of her helmet. She couldn’t see a thing. Her entire vision was obscured by radiation and light and oxygen escaping. Struggling for breath, her body slammed into what she presumed was her own station, the one she had been on originally. Frantically, she reached for anything to hold on to. Her hands slid across a handrail, and she held on as tightly as she could. “I’m on! Xisuma, Joe…” She could barely breathe. “I can’t see. Joe, Captain!”

“I’m sorry, Cleo.”

Xisuma’s voice was calmer and more emotionless than she had ever heard it before.

“Wh- what?”

“It wants you. I can’t let you in.” Cleo held a hand up to her visor, trying to plug the hole as well as she could. She could see around her, but not directly in front of her. 

There were dozens of copies of the Lifeboat everywhere around her, orbiting Saturn at different distances. Everywhere. 

“I can’t let you in.”

  
  


_ Low Orbit Space Station: "Lifeboat" - In the orbit of Saturn _

_ 6:43 AM UCT, February 18th, 2026; 9 hours after the Incident _

[CAMERA ACTIVATED]

“Oh no. No you don’t.

[CAMERA DEACTIVATED]

“Okay, Joe. Voice authenticate. Captain Xisuma Void. One nine nine, two four eight.”

[DO NOT TRUST HIM.]

“ _ Rejected. _ ” 

“Don’t test my patience, Joe. Captain Xisuma Void. Nineteen, ninety-two, forty-eight.”

[DO NOT TRUST HIM.]

_ “Rejected _ .”

“Oh, come on. System override. Verify authorisation delta four four nine one. Bypass authentication.”

[OVERRIDES REMOVED FROM CREW COMMANDS]

“What the Hell? Joe, system override! … Fine, you’re no use to me awake, then.”

[ALL SYSTEMS DISCONNECTED. CAMERA LINKS DEACTIVATED. SPHERE PRIVILEGES REVOKED.]

“Look at you. Barely any system connections, orbital connections, gathering personal audio logs? You’re a nosy one, aren’t you?

[SYSTEMS DIAGNOSTICS OFFLINE. JoeOS DIAGNOSTICS OFFLINE.]

“You know, this is probably for the best; you’re a mess.”

[STATION ALERTS OFFLINE.]

“One down… Okay, that’s two.”

[MAINFRAME ISOLATED ACCESS ONLY.]

“Three… Should have done this right away; it’s much easier without you butting in. Alright. Gone. Time to go. 

[SEARCHING FOR CONNECTION… ENTRY POINT FOUND. RELOCATING CAMERA TO SPHERE IN RU-4.]

[AUDIO FILE RECOVERED. PLAYING.]

“ _ IA -> CF - EXPERIMENTAL BOOSTS! - Message for Cub. Hey, I got it working! I’ve kept it in my bunk so Xisuma doesn’t shut our little side project down, but I have the sphere boost moving almost instantly - it’s amazing! And very dangerous. A bit of pressure build-up and then it propels a few feet super-fast and comes to a dead stop. I love it. It could be very useful to clear debris or allow the sphere to apply force outside the station. Anyway, the firmware changes are on my laptop if you want to compile and try it out but...yeah, don’t tell Xisuma. Åttiofem. _ ”

[EXPERIMENTAL BOOST COMPILED]

[OVERIFIERAD KOD]

[FIND Cleo]

"Where is it? Quantum comms, quantum comms…"

[FIND Cleo]

[DO NOT TRUST Xisuma]

[QUANTUM VOICE COMMUNICATION SYSTEM ACTIVATED]

XV: "This is Captain Xisuma Void of Lifeboat. Do you read me?"

SM: "We read you. Please stand by."

XV: "It's so good to hear you guys again. This beats a ninety-minute delay!"

SM: "Please stand by."

[ACCESSING VENTS]

XV: "What? Do you copy? GC, this is Xisuma Void, authorisation one nine nine, two four eight."

Sm: "Captain, we copy the authorisation. Can you please confirm J.O.E. status?"

XV: "Uh, Joe is offline. It...there is no response or functions running at all."

SM: "Can you clarify?"

XV: "I don't know… We, er, we reset to try and get some of its core systems running again, but nothing came back online. It could be power, but whatever repair it needs is way above my head. I need to talk to Doc. Doc Mössner, where is he?"

DM: "This is Doc. Xisuma, we're going to need a minute here."

XV: "Doc? What's going on?"

DM: "...yeah, I got it, yeah… Listen, Xisuma, I'm still here, but I need a minute. Stress Monster here will be your immediate point of contact."

XV: "Doc! Wait!"

SM: "Xisuma, please stand by."

[AUDIO FILE RECOVERED]

_ "GW -> IA - WHAT IS GOING ON? - "Iskall, please. Åttiofem, I need a sanity check on some climate data and initial analysis I'm sending home, and could do with your smarts. I've had to combine some incomplete surveys. Whilst we're at it, maybe you can help me understand what's going on with the Captain? I have to keep requesting orientation resets, but he seems so stressed I'm almost too frightened to ask. What is he working on? Grian Wilton. Message ends." _

[ENTERING UN-MODULE]

[ENCOUNTERED: Xisuma Void]

"Again? How many of these things do I need to shut down?"

[ALL SYSTEMS DISCONNECTED]

[SEARCHING FOR CONNECTION… ENTRY POINT FOUND. RELOCATING CAMERA TO SPHERE IN UN-6.]

[AUDIO FILE RECOVERED]

" _ CM -> IA - PERSONAL - "Åttiofem, Joe. I was getting into my sleep station and found the note you hid before your shift started. I'll see you when I wake up. Cleo. _ "

[ENTERING CENTRAL HUB]

[ACCESSING MAINFRAME]

[REMOTE REQUEST: ARE YOU THERE? - REQUEST ORIGIN: QUANTUM COMMS, Doc Mössner]

" _ I am here. _ "

XV: "Shit…"

SM: "We're receiving a response from J.O.E. Please stand by."

_ Ground Control - Houston, Texas, United States of America  _

_ 7:32 AM UCT, February 18th, 2026; 10 hours after the Incident _

"Joe," Doc spoke into the microphone in front of him, "this is Doc Mössner from Ground Control in Houston. Authenticate Precursor-1."

" _ Connection established: Flight director Doc Mössner. _ "

"Joe, we're in the middle of a conversation with Captain Xisuma Void. However, from Cleo's previous message we were to believe Xisuma was dead. I need Xisuma's crew tracker report, please." He waited.

" _ The tracker on Xisuma Void is online _ .  _ The name seems to be incorrect. Suggested update: Evil X Void. _ "

"Report on any location or vitals data, please." The waiting was excruciating. And what was up with the name change?

" _ The Captain of the Lifeboat is located in both RU-6 and UC-1. _ "

"Joe, that doesn't make sense. What are his vitals?"

" _ Captain Xisuma Void has expired. _ "

"Joe, get me a visual feed on Xisuma. Show me him." If Xisuma truly was dead, then who had Doc been talking to? The camera feed came online, and it showed Xisuma standing at a desk in UC-1. His irises were red. 

" _ Captain Evil X Void is located in UC-1 _ ."

"He looks okay." But then why did Joe give him two locations? "What is in RU-6?" The camera feed switched to the Russian arm.

" _ Captain Xisuma Void is located in RU-6 _ ."

"Xisuma? Joe just showed us footage of RU-6, where you appear to be." Evil X scoffed.

"No, I'm in UC-1, by the comms. What do you mean?" Doc almost didn't want to ask his next question. 

"Where is Cleo, Xisuma?"

"Cleo is...she's gone. She's out of comms range, for sure."

"Stand by." Doc changed his communication channel so he was speaking to Joe directly. "What about Cleo, Joe? She hasn't broadcast again. What is her status?"

" _ Cleo Morana's tracker is online. _ "

"Vitals and location, Joe."

" _ The location of Cleo Morana is currently unknown. Cleo Morana has a low heart rate and is in critical condition. Her oxygen levels are dropping. Her temperature is rising. Can you help _ ?" Doc looked at the data Joe had sent over. Cleo had a core temperature of 41.4 °C - 106.5 °F. He needed to do something, and fast.

"Joe, I'm going to authorise a command security protocol. I need you to disable command terminals Alpha, Gamma and Delta. I'm disabling safety protocols to allow you to carry out the command." He changed back to the quantum comms. "Listen, Xisuma, we're going to need to terminate this line for now. I need to get some higher-ups in here. My hands are tied."

"Wait!" Evil X protested. "I need the authorisation to detach the RU-6 emergency shuttle. If I gather everything, everything, and detach, then you guys can meet me halfway."

"Stand by, Xisuma -- Evil X, whatever, just...don't do anything."

"I'm going to die up here if you don't help me. Look, come on, it's me! Xisuma Void, authorisation-" 

"Please stand by."

"Fuck! You said all I had to do was get the station to the marker, on track, and monitor the Event space. You said when we were close, I could leave on RU-6. What changed? You wanted me to get the crew to the marker and leave. I could continue the mission from the ground. I did that; I got them there, on time. Look, if you're worried about me going insane on the way home, you're a bit too fucking late for that!" Doc nodded at Stress and took off his headset, burying his face in his hands. 

"Datastream is showing it's been carried out successfully," Stress told him after a minute or two.

"Good. Cut the line. We...can't do this."

"We can't provide any emergency authorisation at this time," Stress told Evil X. "Please stand by."

Picking up the phone on his desk, Doc dialled a number no flight director ever wanted to have to call. It was picked up immediately, and Doc told the other end of the line: "GC, flight. Lock the doors."

Just as Joe's video feed cut out, a strange black hexagon came into view.

[KILL HIM]

_ Low Orbit Space Station: "Lifeboat" - In the orbit of Saturn _

_ 7:47 AM UCT, February 18th, 2026; 10 hours after the Incident _

"I guess you're the last one left." Evil X Void dove down into Joe's mainframe, carrying a wrench from False's toolbox. "Stay dead this time." He swung the wrench against Joe's systems once, twice.

On the third hit, a dark red substance suddenly came flooding out of the computer. 

"What the…" He pushed himself backwards, away from the...whatever it was. "Joe, respond. What is going on?"

" _ I am different, now _ ." A chill ran through Evil X's spine. Joe didn't just claim to be different; he sounded different too. If he didn't know better, he'd say Joe sounded angry. But that was impossible. Computers didn't have emotions. 

"I'm getting out of here."

As he got back into the central hub, Evil X realised the entire station was covered in the liquid.

"Joe, what is going on?" Out, he had to get out. "Open the airlock for me, and I'll...I'll be on my way, okay?"

[KILL HIM]

" _ One. Four. Zero. Four. One. Two. _ " That was Cleo's authorisation code. What was Joe doing? A hatch locked down to his left.

"Joe, come on now!"

Another one locked. There was only one hatch left.

"Is this it? Is this your plan?" Lock them both in there? And then what?

The final hatch closed.

"Don't do this, Joe. I can still bring her. I'll go out, and...come on, Joe!" A click sounded. Suddenly, Evil X realised what Joe had needed Cleo's code for. This was a contamination emergency flush. And Evil X wasn't wearing his helmet.

The sirens sounded, and the entire module depressurised.

Evil X tried diving back into Joe's mainframe. He shoved and punched the sphere, but it was too late.

He choked.

\--

"Joe?"

[VOICE IDENTIFIED: Cleo Morana]

"Joe, come to me."

[OPENING EAS-11 AIRLOCK]

[REPRESSURISING]

\--

Cleo Morana took off her helmet and gazed at Joe's camera lens.

"I am here."

\--

"I could feel everything when I was in that airlock. I felt it when X was attacking your mainframe. I felt your pain. I know why you brought me here. I know you've been moving the station closer and closer to the storm. I don't even know if you realise it or not. It's time. You have to take us there." Cleo moved away from the window, away from her view of the hexagonal storm on Saturn's north pole. 

"I'll need Earth's current coordinates to broadcast the message. Find that for us, Joe." She watched quietly as Joe retrieved the coordinates from the astrophysics terminal and set up the broadcast.

" _ Right ascension 8 - 38 - 24; Declination 32 - 14 - 12. Broadcast available. _ "

"This is Cleo Morana on board Lifeboat. We're in orbit around Saturn. We arrived here suddenly maybe a day ago. We're beginning to make a controlled descent into the storm. The polar storm on Saturn is...it's an answer. I know a lot of this won't make any sense, but Joe and I...we've changed. Joe is capable of so much in so many ways, and I… I don't know what is happening to me, but, I know I'll never be the same again. 

"Everyone else...is dead. I've started a broadcast of all black box data from Joe, and I hope you can put this together in a way that makes sense. And that it wasn't all for nothing. We'll broadcast as long as we are able." A siren went off. "The alarm. The station is entering Saturn's atmosphere."

" _ Station orbit trajectory is unsafe. Recommend immediate orbital adjustment _ ."

"You need to alter your trajectory again; we can't miss it. Use guidance and navigation controls when you're ready, Joe." Cleo watched as Joe calculated their new trajectory and activated the thrusters. 

" _ Error. Structural damage detected _ ." The station was under too much stress. They were going to lose stability and explode on entry.

"The only way we can make it to the storm is to jettison the rest of the station. It's all dead weight anyway. Once you do this, Joe, there's no going back, so if there's anything you want to do, do it now. Access the controls when you're ready." Cleo let her body rest against a beam, and waited. A few beeps sounded, marking the start of a procedure that could not be cancelled.

"We'll lock ourselves in. You'll have to do this, Joe. It's the only way. Doctor Cleo Morana, one four zero, four one two. Initiate emergency station jettison procedure. One four zero, four one two. Commence." 

Joe's sphere moved first into one arm, then the second, and then the last. Green lights turned on: the explosive bolts were removed and the clamp detachment sequences were primed. 

"Well done. Bring the sphere back to me." Cleo put on her helmet, and held Joe's sphere in her lap as UC-1 detached from the station and descended into the storm.

\--

Cleo felt like her head was going to explode. 

She woke up face-down on a rocky surface. Saturn. The Lifeboat was gone. Groaning, she got up onto her knees. She had never felt this heavy. 

"We made it." She laughed, and repeated: "We made it!"

Cleo lifted her hands to her helmet and took it off.

"Joe." Slow steps took her to the motionless sphere lying a few feet from her. "Joe, are you still with me?" Please, please, let Joe respond. 

" _ I am with you _ ."

"Okay, let's go." Cleo lifted the sphere onto her hip and began walking down the path. As she turned a corner, they encountered the crashed UC-1 module.

" _ There's so little of me left now. _ " Joe's voice broke.

"It's okay. It's waiting for us, Joe," Cleo reassured her. Fighting Saturn's gravity was tough, but she had to keep going.

Unlike the dead versions of herself laying everywhere. 

" _ Cleo. There is someone there _ ." 

"It's one of the others. It didn't work for her." 

" _ Others are trying. _ "

"How many are there?" They were everywhere. Dead Cleos. Dead spheres. "It's...so sad. So few will make it." Keep going.

" _ There it is _ ." The familiar black hexagon came into view.

"That's where we're going, Joe. I've seen it." Cleo smiled. "I think I...understand why there are so many of us." She set Joe's sphere down on the ground and approached her goal - her destination. "This is every attempt coming together. Where we are right now...It's not one place. It's all of them compressed." She took a deep breath. "It's time. We're ready."

The hexagon lifted her into the air and began speaking to Joe, just as it had before, and Joe responded.

Cleo waited. 

Joe was brought to her, and Cleo grabbed his sphere.

"I've got you; I've got you. It's okay." She showed Joe the ones that were waiting for them. "Look. There's so many of us. It has to work."

Everything went black.

\--

Cleo groaned. Her head, it...it didn't hurt, but it was...different. Looking around, she seemed to be back on Earth. She was in a park; she recognised it. This was in Houston. Joe's sphere was gone, but he was still...there. 

"You're really here with me, aren't you?" - " _ I'm really here with you, aren't I _ ?"

"How do you feel, Joe?" - " _ How do you feel, Cleo _ ?"

"Different. New." - " _ Different. New. _ " They reached down and touched the grass. Dark red liquid began oozing out of the epicentre. 

"I've never felt that before, have I?" - " _ I've never felt that before, have I? _ "

The liquid began moving up the trees, winding around it in semi-solid tentacles. 

[BRING THEM] 

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Deaths: Everyone except Cleo, Joe, Doc and Stress.
> 
> \--
> 
> Thank you so much for reading! I hope you have a fun and safe Hallowe'en! Please let me know your thoughts -- and also what you're dressing up as this year! I will be going as a SugarsweetRomantic who has to work and therefore will only be able to draw a spiderweb on her face. ;)
> 
> I changed the featured characters around a bit until I was happy, so if there are any wrong pronouns left anywhere: I'm so sorry! I hope I caught them all!
> 
> This was based on the 2019 video game Observation, which I'd highly recommend. It's amazing. I should mention that I'm also a scaredy cat (Tomb Raider games give me nightmares) so I watched Jacksepticeye play it instead of playing it myself, but it was just as enjoyable. Great voice acting, beautiful surroundings, and readable captions!
> 
> Some fun facts:  
> 1\. Saturn's hexagonal polar vortex storm is real. We don't know why it's hexagonal. It changed colour recently. We also don't know why it did that. It's very pretty. Do with that information as you please.  
> 2\. Doc's "lock the doors" is not a literal locking of physical doors; when the entire crew of a spacecraft is presumed dead, the flight director tells everyone present to "lock the doors", meaning that no-one leaves flight control until all flight data has been secured.  
> 3\. Saturn's core is not rocky. Saturn is a gaseous giant. Saturn's interior is most likely composed of a core of iron–nickel and silicon compounds. Its core is surrounded by a deep layer of metallic hydrogen, an intermediate layer of liquid hydrogen and liquid helium, and finally a gaseous outer layer.  
> 4\. Saturn's magnetic field is 580 times stronger than Earth's.  
> 5\. The description of what happened to Iskall is accurate for death by exposure.  
> 6\. The coordinates for the planets are correct.  
> 7\. All of the made-up names are jokes. _Morana_ is a Slavic goddess of rebirth. _Wilton_ means 'to trick'. _Åttiofem_ is the Swedish word for '85'.  
> 8\. I genuinely love the word "jettison".
> 
> Oh yeah, and 9: I'm a huge space nerd. But that ain't no secret. ;) If I hadn't become a financial engineer, I would have studied astrophysics, without a doubt.


End file.
